In response to user queries, search results are oftentimes presented in the form of captions including a title, a URL, and a snippet. A snippet summarizes or characterizes a corresponding webpage and generally includes query terms input by the user. In this regard, snippets are usually a selection of text from the corresponding webpage that include keywords that match query terms of the user's query. The context that surrounds those keywords, however, is oftentimes truncated to maintain a predetermined snippet length. Such snippet truncations can occur at seemingly arbitrary boundaries resulting in an omission of words deemed valuable by providing context, completeness, and/or coherency. In this regard, arbitrary snippet boundaries can result in reduced readability and understandability thereby making it more difficult for a user to determine the relevance or content of a document associated with a search result. Accordingly, a user may overlook a search result or unnecessarily select a search result to further view contents thereof.
Generating snippets in accordance with optimal or preferred snippet boundaries provides fewer inscrutable snippets containing abrupt truncations of context. Such snippets having optimal snippet boundaries can initially provide users with higher quality information in response to a user query. As such, users can more accurately determine whether to click through to a document corresponding with a search result. By way of example only, assume that essential information a user is seeking, such as a “punch line” or an “answer,” is at the end of a sentence having keywords that match query terms. In conventional snippet construction based primarily on length, however, the end of a sentence is oftentimes truncated to accommodate such length restrictions. On the other hand, a snippet boundary that occurs at the end of the sentence provides the essential information the user is seeking.